Explaining How Depleted Uranium Is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land

[Guest guest]

S

Mon, 10 Jan 2005 22:18:41 -0800

 

It is mot enough to simply put good things like vitamins, minerals,

etc. into the body to make it healthy. We must also keep out the toxic

poisons that we encounter in our waters, foods, pharmacueticals, etc.

and also have a program to clean out the toxic load that we have

accumulated and are carring around within us. A " vitamin pill " cannot

instantly, magically, " cure " many years of toxic sludge embedded in

our bones, muscles, organs, right down into our cells. The body,(nor

any other animal's or plnts for that matter) was never designed to be

healthy on " poisons " . That is what those things that I mentioned above

realy are. " F.

 

 

 

 

Explaining How DU is Killing Civilians, Soldiers and Land

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/explaining_how.html

 

 

Explaining How Depleted Uranium Is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land

 

 

Nano-particles pinpointed

 

By Christopher Bollyn

 

 

 

Depleted uranium weapons, and the untold misery they wreak on mankind,

are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. This exclusive report

should break the media embargo imposed on the American people.

 

Despite being a grossly under-reported subject in the mainstream,

there is intense public interest in depleted uranium (DU) and the

damage it inflicts on humankind and the environment.

 

While American Free Press is actively investigating DU weapons and how

they contribute to Gulf War Syndrome, the corporate-controlled press

ignores the illegal use of DU and its long-lasting effects on the

health of veterans and the public.

 

In August 2004 American Free Press published a ground-breaking

four-part series on DU weapons and the long-term health risks they

pose to soldiers and civilians alike. Information provided to AFP by

experts and scientists, some of it published for the first time in

this paper, has increased public awareness of how exposure to small

particles of DU can severely affect human health.

 

Leuren Moret, a Berkeley-based geo-scientist with expertise in

atmospheric dust, corresponds with AFP on DU issues. Recently Moret

provided a copy of her letters to a British radiation biologist, Dr.

Chris Busby, about how nanometer size particles—less than one-tenth of

a micron and smaller—of DU once inhaled or absorbed into the body, can

cause long-term damage to one's health.

 

Busby is one of the founders of Green Audit, a British organization

that monitors companies " whose activities might threaten the

environment and health of citizens. "

 

Moret's writings were meant to assist Busby in a legal case being

heard in the High Court in London where a former defense worker,

Richard David, 49, is suing Normal Air Garrett, Ltd., an aircraft

parts company now owned by Honeywell Aerospace, claiming exposure to

DU on the job has made his life a " living hell. "

 

David worked as a component fitter on fighter planes and bombers but

had to quit due to health problems. He says he developed a cough

within weeks of starting work.

 

Today, David suffers from a variety of symptoms like those known as

Gulf War Syndrome, including respiratory and kidney problems, bowel

conditions and painful joints. Medical tests reveal mutations to his

DNA and damage to his chromosomes, which, he says, could only have

been caused by ionizing radiation. He has also been diagnosed with a

terminal lung condition.

 

Honeywell denies DU was ever used at the plant in Yeovil, Somerset,

where David worked for 10 years until 1995. David claims that DU's

existence at the plant was denied because it is an official secret.

 

David has asked the High Court for more time to gather evidence. The

hearing is due to resume in April. " I don't have any legal

representation, " David said, " so I am representing myself. It is a

real David versus Goliath case.

 

" I am confident I will win. I hope to set a precedent for other cases

of people who have suffered from the effects of depleted uranium, " he

said.

 

Moret's letters on the particle effect of DU is based on research done

by Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist and former scientist with

the Manhattan Project and the National Laboratory at Livermore, Calif.

Fulk, who has developed a " particle theory " about how DU

nano-particles affect human DNA, donates his time and expertise to

help bring information about DU to the public.

 

Asked about Fulk's particle theory, Busby said it is " quite sound. "

 

" DU is much more dangerous than they say, " Busby added. " I've always

said that it contributes significantly to Gulf War Syndrome. "

 

When Moret's correspondence to Dr. Busby was posted on the Internet

over the New Year's holiday under the title " How Depleted Uranium

Weapons Are Killing Our Troops, " some 6,000 people read the letter in

the first two days. The following Monday, a producer from BBC's

Panorama program contacted Moret to arrange an interview.

 

If the BBC follows up with an investigation on the health effects of

DU, it may be hard for the U.S. media to maintain their cover-up. More

than 500,000 " Gulf War Era " vets currently receive disability

compensation, many of them for a variety of symptoms generally

referred to as Gulf War Syndrome. Experts blame DU for many of these

symptoms.

 

" The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get

worse, " Robert C. Koehler of the Chicago-based Tribune Media Services

wrote in an article about DU weapons entitled " Silent Genocide. "

 

" DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who

breathe it or touch it; the substance also alters one's genetic code, "

Koehler wrote. " The Pentagon's response to such charges is denial,

denial, denial. And the American media is its moral co-conspirator. "

 

U.S. GOVERNMENT KNOWS

 

The U.S. government has known for at least 20 years that DU weapons

produce clouds of poison gas on impact. These clouds of aerosolized DU

are laden with billions of toxic sub-micron sized particles. A 1984

Department of Energy conference on nuclear airborne waste reported

that tests of DU anti-tank missiles showed that at least 31 percent of

the mass of a DU penetrator is converted to nano-particles on impact.

In larger bombs the percentage of aerosolized DU increases to nearly

100 percent, Fulk told AFP.

 

DU is harmful in three ways, according to Fulk: " Chemical toxicity,

radiological toxicity and particle toxicity. "

 

Particles in the nano-meter (one billionth of a meter) range are a

" new breed of cat, " Moret wrote. Because the size of the

nano-particles allows them to pass freely throughout the organism and

into the nucleus of its cells, exposure to nano-particles causes

different symptoms than exposure to larger particles of the same

substance.

 

Internalized DU particles, Fulk said, act as " a non-specific catalyst "

in both " nuclear and non-nuclear " ways. This means that the uranium

particle can affect human DNA and RNA because of both its chemical and

radiological properties. This is why internalized DU particles cause

" many, many diseases, " Fulk said.

 

Asked if this is how DU causes severe birth defects, Fulk said, " Yes. "

 

MILITARY AWARE

 

The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic

code. A 2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C.

Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in

Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU's chemical instability causes 1

million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its

radiation effect alone, Moret wrote.

 

Dr. Miller requested that questions be sent in writing and copied to a

military spokesman. She did tell AFP that it should be noted that her

studies showing that DU is " neoplastically transforming and genotoxic "

are based on in vitro cellular research.

 

Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than

micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British

toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased

toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size.

 

For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon

(0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill

effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15

minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.

 

" Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by

inhalation, and ingestion, " Moret wrote. " Nano-particles have high

mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles

of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the

particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.

 

" When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory

bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where

they migrate all through the brain, " she wrote. " Many Gulf era

soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain

tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can

interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve

processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the

brain.

 

" Damage to the mitochondria, which provide all energy to the cells and

nerves, can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig's disease,

Parkinson's disease and Hodgkin's disease. "

 

 

 

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